2008 Songs de Magdelaine St Emilion

A sleeper of the vintage, this well-executed 2008 St.-Emilion exhibits a dark plum/ruby/purple-tinged color as well as a glorious bouquet of sweet black cherries, licorice and powdered limestone, a good texture, medium to full body and a pure style. Combining substance with finesse, it should age effortlessly for 15+ years.Robert M. Parker, Jr. - Wine Advocate - Issue#194 - May 2011

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Scores and Reviews

WA - A sleeper of the vintage, this well-executed 2008 St.-Emilion exhibits a dark plum/ruby/purple-tinged color as well as a glorious bouquet of sweet black cherries, licorice and powdered limestone, a good texture, medium to full body and a pure style. Combining substance with finesse, it should age effortlessly for 15+ years.Robert M. Parker, Jr. - Wine Advocate - Issue#194 - May 2011

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The Producer

Magdelaine had 10.4 hectares of vineyards, of which six were on the famous St Emilion limestone ridge (very close to Ch. Ausone) and the remainder on clay- and limestone-based slopes. Merlot performs particularly well on these limestone-rich soils and at Magdelaine it is the dominant grape, making up 90 percent of the blend – a higher proportion than is found in any other Premier Grand Cru Classé from St Emilion. The final vintage of Magdelaine was 2011, before it was swallowed up by Ch. Bélair-Monange.

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The Grape

The Region

St Emilion is one of Bordeaux's largest producing appellations, producing more wine than Listrac, Moulis, St Estèphe, Pauillac, St Julien and Margaux put together. St Emilion has been producing wine for longer than the Médoc but its lack of accessibility to Bordeaux's port and market-restricted exports to mainland Europe meant the region initially did not enjoy the commercial success that funded the great châteaux of the Left Bank.

St Emilion itself is the prettiest of Bordeaux's wine towns, perched on top of the steep limestone slopes upon which many of the region's finest vineyards are situated. However, more than half of the appellation's vineyards lie on the plain between the town and the Dordogne River on sandy, alluvial soils with a sprinkling of gravel.

Further diversity is added by a small, complex gravel bed to the north-east of the region on the border with Pomerol. Atypically for St Emilion, this allows Cabernet Franc and, to a lesser extent, Cabernet Sauvignon to prosper and defines the personality of the great wines such as Ch. Cheval Blanc.

In the early 1990s there was an explosion of experimentation and evolution, leading to the rise of the garagistes, producers of deeply-concentrated wines made in very small quantities and offered at high prices. The appellation is also surrounded by four satellite appellations, Montagne, Lussac, Puisseguin and St. Georges, which enjoy a family similarity but not the complexity of the best wines.